From “Listen To Your Day: The Life-Changing Practice of Paying Attention” by Paul Angone
What would you do if a bear moonwalked right in front of you?
Gasp?
Laugh?
Pull out your phone as quickly as possible to take a video?
What if I told you that you probably wouldn’t do any of these things? What if I told you that you most likely wouldn’t notice this moonwalking bear at all?
Not because the bear was hidden. It would be right in front of you. And yes, you wouldn’t see it.
I know this because over the years, I’ve seen very smart people from around the world sitting in large classrooms, auditoriums, gyms, and conference halls – managers, VPs, and CEOs from all over the world in a grand ballroom at the Palazzio in Las Vegas – all miss the moonwalking bear that was moving right in front of them. No matter the size, age, education levels, or socioeconomic makeup of the audience, they always miss the moonwalking bear. It’s wild. And they can’t believe it either.
How is this possible? What am I talking about? Let me explain.
Over the years, I’ve played the same video in countless keynotes to all kinds of different industries. Maybe you’ve seen it? (Funny thing is, I’ve found that even if people have seen a similar type of video, they still don’t notice the moonwalking bear.)
In the video, there are two teams. One is white clothes and the other in black, with one basketball for each team. The narrator asks a simple question: “How many passes does the team in white make?”
The video plays as the audience focuses in, counting the passes. After the passes are completed, the video pauses, and I ask the audience how many passes the team in white made. They all shout out in that excited unison when you’re sure you have the right answer, “Thirteen!” They got it right! But then the narrator in the video asks, “But did you see the moonwalking bear?”
“What?!” Gasps and shouts fill the crowd. The video rewinds, and we watch the same sequence. But this time, the audience erupts in laughter as they now see the moonwalking bear that went slowly across the entire screen, which they hadn’t seen the first time.
The screen goes black and the narrator says, “It’s easy to miss something you’re not looking for.”
Why does everyone miss the moonwalking bear? It’s because they aren’t looking for one.
This video is tied into the psychological theory called inattentional blindness. A working definition of this phenomenon is “the failure to notice something right in front of you because other attention-demanding tasks are at hand.”